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Strong audience response to Esty's meeting on gun control BY ANDREW LARSON REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Congresswoman Elizabeth H. Esty, D-5th District, left, held a town hall-style meeting to discuss proposed gun control policies Wednesday night at Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School in Waterbury. She was accompanied on stage by Fox Connecticut Reporter Laurie Perez, who served as moderator. Andrew Larson/RA

WATERBURY -- Newly elected Congresswoman Elizabeth H. Esty, D-5th District, held a town hall-style meeting Wednesday night at Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School, focusing on proposed gun control policies aimed at preventing another tragedy like the mass shooting in Newtown.

Esty, a freshman in the House of Representatives, is one 12 vice chairs of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. There are more than 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States every year, she said.

"That's not a political problem; it's an American problem," she said. "And America has to solve it."

Esty supports tougher laws for people who illegally posses guns, and a crackdown on illegal gun trafficking. At the same time, she said she supports people's second Second Amendment right to own guns, and doesn't want to take guns away from law abiding citizens.

"But we do need to answer this question: Who shouldn't have firearms?" Esty said.

She suggested "plugging holes" in the mental health care system, and creating mechanisms to detect warning signs of people who are at risk of misusing guns.

"If the issue is the person behind the gun, we need a system to identify them and not allow guns to get into their hands," Esty said.

She said 30 states don't contribute gun ownership information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, another loophole that needs to be fixed. She noted that Connecticut is one of the states that does contribute to the NICS.

"Felons are not supposed to have guns," Esty said. "If states don't report their guns, we don't know which felons have them."

She also raised questions about the widespread availability of assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

"Every one of these mass shootings has involved mass magazines," Esty said.

People in the audience began yelling that was not true, but Esty cited as an example the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in which 13 shots were fired in 19 seconds.

Esty said the prevalence of high capacity guns puts everyone at risk, including law enforcement officers.

More than 100 people attended Wednesday night's meeting, including many staunch advocates of gun rights.

At times, people in the crowd began shouting over each other and Esty.

At one point, someone yelled, "Is this a shouting match or are you going to let her talk?"

Some gun advocates were concerned that increasing government oversight on guns would lead to prohibitions that make guns difficult or impossible to obtain.

Others cited examples of countries that have outlawed guns and experienced an increase in violent crime.

Many people echoed the sentiment that guns shouldn't be blamed for the actions of reckless people.

"Gun violence is done by people not affected by gun control," said Steve Wallace, of Waterbury, who said he owns "every type of gun they want to ban."

Woodbury First Selectman Gerald Stomski urged Esty to work on cutting taxes and cutting government spending "so people don't have to work their entire lives ... and can deal with mental issues at their own house."

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FREEPRESS wrote on Feb 21, 2013 6:16 AM:

" "....13 shots were fired in 19 seconds." Actually that's kind of slow: Anyone would easily be able to get off about 60 + rounds in 19 seconds if the magazine held that many. So she wants to limit magazines to 10 rounds or even 7 rounds; at the rate of fire she stated, it would then take about 22 seconds to get off 13 shots using multiple magazines. So tell me Ms. Esty, how does reducing the SIZE of magazines reduce "GUN VIOLENCE"?

Again with a twist on a saying: Banning high capacity magazines to prevent gun violence is like restricting alcoholics to driving only sub-compact cars to prevent drunk driving! "

" Why is it so hard for these socialist/Marxist politicians to understand that criminals don't follow laws and they never will. This is only a direct attack on tax paying, law abiding citizens who want to protect themselves and their families. Why is it also so hard to understand what, "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" means?????? "

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